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Which, I mean...so many bands of all genres have been doing that live 'enhancement' thing for so long now that many people apparently either don't care or just accept it.

Me, I prefer to have whatever I'm hearing live be created solely by the musicians onstage in real time. Call it anachronistic, a dinosaur mentality/old school or whatever, but it's just part of what I want out of a live experience.

KISS rocker Gene Simmons wants “dishonest” bands who use backing tapes to include that fact on their concert tickets.

Simmons claimed some of the world’s biggest performers are relying on prerecorded music or vocals in concerts.

“I have a problem when you charge $100 to see a live show and the artist uses backing tracks,” Simmons said. “It’s like the ingredients in food, if the first ingredient on the label is sugar that’s at least honest. It should be on every ticket — you’re paying $100, 30 to 50 per cent of the show is (on) backing tracks and they’ll sing sometimes, sometimes they’ll lip synch. At least be honest. It’s not about backing tracks, it’s about dishonesty.

“There’s nobody with a synthesiser on our stage, there’s no samples on the drums, there’s nothing. There’s very few bands who do that now — AC/DC, Metallica, us. I can’t even say that about U2 or the Stones. There’s very few bands who don’t use (backing) tracks.”

I was talking to a lifelong Ki$$ fan today who said he would like to pay the $800 for the meet and greet at the arena here so he could punch his fat face.

I pointed out he may have a stand in for that or it could just be a video of him...

I was talking to a lifelong Ki$$ fan today who said he would like to pay the $800 for the meet and greet at the arena here so he could punch his fat face.

I pointed out he may have a stand in for that or it could just be a video of him...

As Gene says, so dishonest.

As opposed to, say, recording some live shows, taking those tapes into a recording studio and re-recording over the tapes, dubbing just about anything one could think of (including noises of cheering crowds), then releasing all of that as a 'live' album which would be titled something along the lines of...say, 'Alive!' and not disclosing how the album was actually made until years and years later - now THAT reeks of integrity.

Paul's vocals sounded passable enough. Couldn't tell if they were partially piped in or not from the clip, but I've seen clips from the last several tours where they've sounded rougher. Smart move splitting up the tunes between the ones Gene sings lead on and the Paul ones, in terms of pacing.

Stage show looked good. At least the band isn't going out with a show where it looks like they've skimped on production costs.

Pretty good setlist. Nice to hear them playing War Machine. A few odd choices: one of the tracks early on in the set I didn't quite recognize, and had to look up afterward to find out it was Say What? from the Sonic Boom album. Have only heard Sonic Boom and Monster once or twice apiece. That tune didn't really stack up well alongside most of the rest of the setlist. Thought the title track to the Psycho Circus album was another odd choice: are longtime, hardcore KISS fans over the moon about that track and that album? The other weird one was Hide Your Heart, which...well, can't say as I was a huge fan of what KISS was doing during that Asylum/Crazy Nights/Hot In The Shade period. Not back in the day, and that stuff hasn't gotten much better to my ears.

Didn't much care for Eric Singer singing Beth. Much along the lines as me not caring for Thayer singing Shock Me: Beth and Shock Me...man, those are just signature Criss and Frehley tunes. You know, I can give Singer a pass for singing Black Diamond, but...you know, I get it in that Criss isn't in any condition to play a full set with the band (and hasn't been by his own admission for at least a decade) if he wanted to. I dunno...seems silly for me to talk about integrity and nuance when talking about KISS...their over-the-top, in-your-face bombastics were part of what I loved about them in the first place, but is nothing fucking sacred to Gene and Paul? I suppose not, if they had no compunctions about sticking Thayer and Singer in Criss's and Frehley's makeup to begin with. You'd think Singer might have had some misgivings about singing Beth, though...although now that I think about it, Gene and Paul had Eric Carr re-record Beth, so fuck Peter Criss has been the mindset for decades, I suppose.

Paul's vocals sounded passable enough. Couldn't tell if they were partially piped in or not from the clip, but I've seen clips from the last several tours where they've sounded rougher. Smart move splitting up the tunes between the ones Gene sings lead on and the Paul ones, in terms of pacing.

Terry I usually agree with almost all your posts but are you fucking mental?

Click on this.

No one is singing live on this, the only question is whether 90% of the music is piped in or all of it.

He is starting to sing the first verse of Detroit Rock City - but then lip synchs the rest. LOL

Just to throw the whole "he's not singing" controversy off. But its so obvious because he can barely make it through that first verse then all of a sudden doesn't have problems for the rest of the song.

Terry I usually agree with almost all your posts but are you fucking mental?

Click on this.

No one is singing live on this, the only question is whether 90% of the music is piped in or all of it.

I mean, I just couldn't tell...

Like, I could tell that Paul's lead vocals, regardless of the piped-in vs. live factor, sounded as if they had been sung more recently: they sounded about right for a guy his age, with the attendant problems he has had with his voice over the last 5 years.

As to if Stanley had made fresher recordings of his vocals for the setlist in advance of the tour - complete with multiple edits/takes (I suppose he could have done the tracks line for line - and he's miming along to those recordings (or doing partial live vocals along with the recordings, or if the only thing live regarding Stanley is his inbetween song banter) - very little would surprise me. It wouldn't surprise me if Gene's vocals were piped in, too.

I just couldn't tell for certain based on the thread clip here I watched, in terms of catching Stanley miming badly, or whatever. If you say he was, I'm not going to disbelieve you. I mean, it's not like Stanley miming vs. actually singing is going to be a deal-breaker for me in terms of attending a show or not.

Now, when Stanley jettisoned his frontman stagecraft technique of slapping his own ass while he minced across the stage...I mean, fuck, once THAT was out of the arsenal, THAT was a deal-breaker.

"LISten, I was miming along to a recording while I was pretending to talk to someone backstage tonight..."

Like, I could tell that Paul's lead vocals, regardless of the piped-in vs. live factor, sounded as if they had been sung more recently: they sounded about right for a guy his age, with the attendant problems he has had with his voice over the last 5 years.

As to if Stanley had made fresher recordings of his vocals for the setlist in advance of the tour - complete with multiple edits/takes (I suppose he could have done the tracks line for line - and he's miming along to those recordings (or doing partial live vocals along with the recordings, or if the only thing live regarding Stanley is his inbetween song banter) - very little would surprise me. It wouldn't surprise me if Gene's vocals were piped in, too.

I just couldn't tell for certain based on the thread clip here I watched, in terms of catching Stanley miming badly, or whatever. If you say he was, I'm not going to disbelieve you. I mean, it's not like Stanley miming vs. actually singing is going to be a deal-breaker for me in terms of attending a show or not.

Now, when Stanley jettisoned his frontman stagecraft technique of slapping his own ass while he minced across the stage...I mean, fuck, once THAT was out of the arsenal, THAT was a deal-breaker.

"LISten, I was miming along to a recording while I was pretending to talk to someone backstage tonight..."

If Britney Speers can use Autotune anyone can. Remember it's KI$$. Them New York jews will pull any trick to make a buck.

Sebastian wrote in a series of tweets: "KISS hit the exact same notes
[Tuesday] night in Anaheim that they did in their 30s.

"I listened to Paul Stanley sing his ass off LIVE. I paid tribute to the
band that has given us more than any other band that any of us can
name. I have seen way more obvious use of backing tracks than with
KISS.

"KISS is not lip syncing," he added. "There are too busy putting on
the greatest rock show you will ever see."

The show I saw on Motley Crue's 'final' tour...the backing tapes were so egregious it was more amusing than anything else. The heaviest use of the tapes were for filling out the guitar parts. Like, with Mick Mars, I can almost understand it, because the guy is very seriously physically ill. Even so, at one point they were playing...what the fuck was it...Don't Go Away Mad, and when Mars was soloing you hear Mars soloing, the electric backing rhythm part AND the acoustic rhythm part all going simultaneously...and I couldn't help but laugh.

The other show I remember for being not particularly subtle about backing tracks was Def Leppard in...either 2007 or 2008. A LOT of backing guitar tracks and backing vocal tracks piped in, again to the point where it was laughable.

I have seen him on the Monsters of Rock 1988. Paul was killing it! Psycho Circus Tour, fantastic! 2014 struggeling heavily...this year...well...

Gesendet von meinem SM-G955F mit Tapatalk

The only time I ever got around to seeing KISS was the Asylum tour. I'd say maybe 1/2 to 2/3rds of the 15,000 seat arena was full. Wasn't an all-around great show, but two things stood out to me. One was that Eric Carr was a fucking MONSTER live. Much more so than he ever was on virtually every KISS album he played on outside of Creatures. The other was that Paul Stanley was a very, very good live vocalist. He was belting the shit out of one song after another.

The only time I ever got around to seeing KISS was the Asylum tour. I'd say maybe 1/2 to 2/3rds of the 15,000 seat arena was full. Wasn't an all-around great show, but two things stood out to me. One was that Eric Carr was a fucking MONSTER live. Much more so than he ever was on virtually every KISS album he played on outside of Creatures. The other was that Paul Stanley was a very, very good live vocalist. He was belting the shit out of one song after another.

Never saw KISS with Carr but he sounds pretty good on the Love Gun clip I posted.

Never saw KISS with Carr but he sounds pretty good on the Love Gun clip I posted.

Oh, I mean, Carr was ferocious live...and it probably seemed all the more so because so much of what he did with KISS studio-wise - again, outside of the Creatures album - was often very simplistic and metronomic.

Listening to the Whisky show from the other day. Stanley sounds rough. If that's a tape they should have put more work into it.

That's what threw me about the recent Vancouver show, in that, like...Stanley's voice doesn't sound flawless or like it did circa 1977 (or 1987, 1997...or even 2007)...so I'm left to wonder if they are using a backing lead vocal tape that was recorded, say, last fall in a studio somewhere, so that way at least Stanley's lead vocals don't sound like the band just lifted the vocal tracks from Kiss Alive 2 or something...like, it smacks of being a bit more...devious.

But did they intentionally pre-record Stanley's recent voice to intentionally sound rough, as well? Like, if you're going to use pre-recorded vocal tracks and mime along to them, isn't the point to sound better than just merely average or passable?

Might be that they decided to play THIS particular show live because it was at a small venue with less distance between the band & audience (compared to an arena gig) and so it would have been much easier to spot the obvious fakery.

So I guess the moral there is.... only bother to see them on this tour if you can get into a club gig